MMA News

The UFC successfully sues at least one man for watching stolen Pay-Per-View streams

According to a story done by Bloody Elbow’s Iain Kidd, the UFC has successfully sued a man for streaming live Pay-Per View events.

According to Kidd, the UFC is going to great lengths to stop online piracy and keep their PPV events as much under wraps as possible. As any fight fan knows, Zuffa has always kept a strong hold on their privately owned footage, and their team of interceptors have always been able to keep that footage out of the un-paying eye.

However, there are always way around things like that. Not to say that those actions don’t come without consequences. And though Mr. Kidd seemed to believe that the UFC might have had some challenges in suing someone for traditional copyright infringement like the Motion Picture Association would, it seems that the UFC still found a way.

It appears that the Zuffa attorneys used some tricky lawyering to dodge any dirty looks by suing for copyright infringement, and instead decided to sue the viewers under Title 47 of the United States Code, §§ 553 and 605 which state (553) that a person is prohibited from intercepting or receiving “any communications service offered over a cable system, unless specifically authorized to do so…” and (605) prescribes the unauthorized interception and publication of any “radio communication”.

Basically, Zuffa is suing not for copyright infringement, but instead for the accused stealing the UFC’s Pay-Per-View signal without authorization.

Zuffa was able to successfully sue at least one person, and as Kidd stated in his story, it’s no surprise that they attempted to sue hundreds more. According to Kidd, the accused chose not to be defiant and in his compliance the judge was lenient and rewarded him with a default judgement.

The plaintiff was forced to pay a hefty some of nearly $12,000. $1,000 for each event that was streamed in statutory damages, a light sentence considering it is the lowest amount allowed by law, $4,000 in enhanced damages and a large lump on attorney’s fees and court costs totaling to $5,948.70. So, for two Pay-Per-View events the plaintiff was forced to pay a grand total of $11,948.70.

Just goes to show, kids, that it doesn’t pay to steal and your best bet if you can’t afford to watch the event is to either chock it up as a loss or hit the local sports bar.

Zuffa doesn’t realize how many -can’t- afford their PPV’s and how little they’ll gain from this venture of suing fans. If this continues, it’ll no doubt grow into mass resentment. The hosts should be the target, not the low-income fans.

You do realize that you are aligning yourself on the side of the thieves right? Since you are quoting Newton, have you ever thought that the action of the thieves to first steal has had an equal and opposite reaction of the UFC suing the thieves of their content? Do you support theft?

Do I support theft? Of course not, thieves are scum… But your logic doesn’t hold. Someone could say that less appealing cards, raising prices, forcing the purchase of 3 mediums for 1 event (fight pass, fox sports, PPV) creates the reaction.. on and on.

I don’t condone ‘stolen’ streaming, I’m only stating what seems obvious. The action that Zuffa is taking, suing individual fans, -will- cause a swelling resentment if it continues. Hosting sites should be the target, not the low-income fanbase… which I’m guessing is quite large and growing.

I believe that you have yourself tied into knots trying to defend theft and your position on the business practices of Zuffa.

I suppose you DO NOT support ANY KIND of theft from any source as you have just stated and you were only stating a possibility of fan reaction based on Zuffa reaction to individuals stealing their content? But, correct if I am wrong, your tone seems to indicate that you in fact do sympathize with the thieves BECAUSE of Zuffa’s business practices! Am I right? And that you have clearly stated that you think ANY KIND of theft is abhorrent and you don’t condone it. You do feel though that thieves will have swelling resentment to Zuffa suing them. That is right as well? You also feel that ONLY thieving sites should be prosecuted and NOT the low-income fanbase thieves, which you think is quite large..and growing! Is that also correct?

Assuming that I am correct, then my logic does hold up and you are defending thievery. If you don’t like someones business practices and cost that business charges you for their products, then you have the right NOT to purchase those products NO MATTER what your income is. But, you DO NOT have the right to steal the products OR buy fenced goods!!! Someone who watches pirated stolen content is like someone KNOWINGLY buying stolen goods from a fence. Do you agree?

If so, then you also agree with my logic and points. And if you don’t then you do condone stealing.

“But you support thievery, am I right? You’re defending thieves, is that correct??”… Lol, WTF is wrong with you? If you actually read my post, you’d know my correction for your logic is with the Newton remark, that’s it. End of posting. Instead, you made a straw man so you could veer into self-aggrandizing inflammatory babbling of points you’ve already made.. and then some, “You don’t have the right to steal Zuffa content! Pirated content is like buying stolen goods! Those thieves!”….Do you try to look like a tool on purpose? Dana, is that you? I actually feel like -you- stole something from -me- with your fallacy.. my time. You win.

watching things online shouldnt be illegal. people who watch streams dont steal shit. that`s a thing a lot of people misjudge. Those who steal are the one who put the video online, host etc… the UFC should focus on them. they are the criminals, not the people watching the videos. And for fuck sake, it`s the internet what do you expect? there are far more serious crime going on right now and yet you don`t see things getting straighten up. YEAH lets sue every kid watching UFC videos online, very productive, while there`s pedophiles watching child porn. BRAVO

That may be right, maybe they want more and more profits. But what do you think they use the profits for? Do you actually know how many people Zuffa employs through the money they make? There are alot people and their families that make a living from what the Zuffa/UFC charges. Is $60 too much? Maybe, but I can guarantee that if people quit paying it and didn’t watch UFC content and they started losing money, then the price will come down. It’s simple economics and there will always be thieves who will steal it NO MATTER what the cost is. BUT just because the price is high, IT DOES NOT justify theft.

Now to your point, I’m not sure what the situation was for this verdict to be charged at 12K, but it was the courts who determined that fee and the subsequent cost to go to court. Most likely, Zuffa wanted to sue for more to make an example out of thus guy to scare off other, less ballsy thieves. Don’t you see that the theif brought ALL of this onto himself by stealing?

Nothing is being stolen. No income is being lost. If someone cannot afford the PPV, the UFC is not losing money by then streaming it. The people who will buy it will always buy it, and the people who won’t, won’t. It’s that simple. The other thing this does though is sour people on buying OTHER aspects of your product (shirts, DVDs, etc – the more affordable merchandise)

these so called fans are greedy thieves. the UFC gives away so much for free, its unheard of. Their free fight cards are like 2 to 1 over the PPVs.Yet the thieves want everything for free. If they cannot get a job that affords them to watch some of the ppvs, then tough shit. Get a new job, and stop being a whine baby

Its stealing, period. If you cannot afford it, then watch the fight nights, or the fight nights on fox. The UFC gives away so damn many free fight cards, its insane. And people wanna go and steal the ppv because they cant afford it? Get a new job, or just watch all the FREE fight cards the UFC gives away. You people are idiots. The UFC gives you a ton for free, and you still want everything else for free. Get a real job, and stop bitching

You call me an idiot? Apparently, you’re the idiot. Your post serves no rational argument to what I posted as I don’t support unauthorized UFC streaming… But whatever, you had to come here and sling your weight around to feel good about doing your job… Mr Umpire. Sir.

the UFC still makes MILLIONS from these FREE fights they get money from the network etc… go after the people who upload it the people who provide the service of streaming because unless ppv prices drop people are going to watch especially low income people dana and zuffa are just greddy as hell and don’t realize that not everbodys as financially able as them even with jobs and some cards arent worth anywhere near $60 i say more people should stream stop buying and make a change happen theyre treating fans like puppets with the “they’ll buy whatever we put out” mentallity if we stopped buying change has to come dana cares more about money now than the sport itself when he used to be so passionate about making mma a sport and now that its blown up he forgot about what got him where he is in the first place

I see this going very bad against UFC. Ya its wrong to steal, but what good is this going to do for the fans of UFC. Not everyone can afford the $50/$60 for a single card. I hope for one day, some other organization comes up and over the UFC. Dana has done alot of good for MMA, but in general, is a horrible boss/all around person. Trash talks anyone who doesn’t do what he says.

If they successfully shut down all of the streaming sites, I just wouldn’t watch anymore. I got burned one too many times by bad judging decisions, or just all around crappy events. Lower that shit to $20, and I’ll consider going legit.

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